SingShot

SingShot is releasing their own variation of online karaoke tomorrow. The new service is essentially a copy of kSolo heavily influenced by the successful YouTube user interface. All the basic functionality of the kSolo product is there. Performers can select from a library of songs that are at least about two to three years old, listen to a demo, and record their own version while following along with the lyrics on the screen. The hope is to repeat the success of other social content sites like YouTube by allowing users to share their songs to be voted and commented on by the public. The human filtering will hopefully pick out the Kelly Clarksons in a forest of William Hungs.The big differences in these two services lie in the details. First of all, kSolo spurned Flash, the now-ubiquitous platform for online video, requires a plugin and runs only on Internet Explorer. SingShot runs completely on Flash and works in all browsers, making it a breeze to set up and start running. Users just have change their Flash settings to allow the program access to their mic. While both programs allow performances to be shared, SingShot follows the simple YouTube model and allows a simple cut and paste link or embed, whereas kSolo has a clunky share feature that allows you to email a link or, after a little hunting, embed your entire playlist on a page.